REPORT

An Opening Word
‘When people in poverty are listened
to, change happens.’ TRICIA
That is the simple – and stark –
message of Scotland’s Poverty Truth
Commission. The opposite is, tragically,
also true. When people who struggle
against poverty are ignored, or worse
still, blamed for their poverty things will
only get worse.
For the last eighteen months, the Poverty
Truth Commission has brought together
two groups of people: some of Scotland’s
most influential citizens and an equal
number of people who face the daily grind
against poverty. We have met ten times as
a full Commission as well as more
frequently in small groups.
We have laughed and cried together.
We have expressed fury at senseless
bureaucracy and hard-hearted injustice.
We have marvelled at people’s ability to
shine despite the problems they face, as
well as their capacity for creativity and
openness to new ideas. New friendships
have been created – friendships which
themselves demonstrate a different way of
working. This is something we hope that
this report demonstrates. In it we present
key challenges but we also celebrate the
incredible capacity of people and places
that are far too often written off.
We have examined some of the biggest
challenges that our nation faces: the
growth of in-work poverty; the impact of
welfare cuts; the stigma people in poverty
experience; and the additional costs of
being poor.
These were not the only areas we could
have considered but, after a few meetings,
they were where we chose collectively to
focus our energy.
Our insights build on the work of the
previous Poverty Truth Commission,
including their concern for children in
Kinship Care and finding positive ways to
overcome violence. The growth of
Foodbanks has also become an important
aspect of our deliberations. Our work on
the issues facing asylum seekers and
refugees has just begun and we hope that
this is an issue our successors will
consider further.
The Poverty Truth Commission is not like
many other commissions. We are not
simply interested in gathering information,
evidence and proposing what needs to
change. Whilst we present clear
challenges and call for change, we are
primarily committed to being that change,
seeking to demonstrate the approach and
culture shift we advocate.
We are clear. Unless the people who
experience poverty are able to shape the
solutions, and not just be the recipients of
the uninformed ideas of others, then
nothing will really alter. This is about all of
us. We present that simple thought as the
biggest single challenge of 2014 – a year
of potentially momentous significance in
the history of Scotland.
‘The Poverty Truth Commission is
about changing hearts and minds.’
SANDRA
Scotland’s
Poverty Truth Commission
June 2014
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